When I googled for the word “Promise”, there were more than 9 million hits including some promise day sms, lyrics from a song by Ciara, a wiki page on promise and many many more. I clicked on one particular link showing the etymology of the word.

Have you ever thought of writing promise as “Promys”, am sure the primary school teacher would have come to you with a long stick in hand. But, that was how the word was spelt in 1400s when it first appeared in Middle England. Through the centuries the word evolved and is now spelled differently.

I made a promise to myself today. By next year am going to be a good baker. I had been an awful baker all this time; you can have a look at my baking disasters. Recently, I have made some improvement in my skills, but still pounds to bake before I perfect the art. J.

What we call pancakes today might have originated more than two millennia ago. It wasn’t like the ones served at our dining table, but was a concoction (mixture) of milk, flour, eggs, and spices, and was called “Alita Dolcia” (Latin for “another sweet”) by the ancient Romans. They were probably prepared on flat rocks smeared with grease. The modern day pancakes were invented in Medieval Europe.

Banana Pancake

Pancake is also called: hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks in US and Canada; pannekoek in Afrikaans community; Apom Balik in Malay; Ban Chian Kuih in Chinese; chatamaari in Nepal; Blini in Russia.

There are numerous variations of Pancake prepared in different cuisines, based on changes in ingredients (flour, eggs and milk remain constant, rest vary) the cooking implements (flat rocks, hearths, griddles, microwave oven), the look and taste of the final product (thick or thin, spicy or sweet).

In India too, there are several variations of pancake – pitha (or pithy) in Bengal and Assam, Dosa in South, Meetha Pooda in Punjab. We’ll prepare yet another variation, Banana Pancake, today. Get ready for a sweet sensation to the taste buds.

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 8 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Flour (Maida): ½ cup

Banana (Kala): 1, mashed properly

Egg (Dim): 1

Milk (Dudh): ½ cup

Baking powder: ½ teaspoon

Sugar (Chini): 1 tablespoon

Butter/ Clarified butter (Makhan/ Ghee): 1 teaspoon

Cherry: 6 /7, chopped coarsely

Cinnamon powder (Dar chini guro): ¼ teaspoon (optional)

Vegetable oil (Sada tel): 6 teaspoon

Salt: ½ teaspoon

Preparation:

Take a large bowl, sift the flour in it, put in the other dry ingredients and mix

Add the mashed banana , milk, butter and chopped cherries, and whisk to make a smooth batter

Heat one and half teaspoon on oil on a pan and pour in one-fourth of the batter

Fry one side of the pan cake till it becomes golden brown, turn the other side and fry similarly

Fry three more pan cakes with the batter

Banana Pancake with toppings

Hot Tips: Banana pan cakes taste great with freshly sliced banana and honey or maple syrup. Along with mashed bananas, other soft fruits like mango, strawberries, blue berries can also be added to the batter. Fruitless pan cakes can also be made; it depends on what you want to put in.

Yesterday, we started the series Breakfast with Eggs Recipes. Today, we’ll present French Toast (Part 1 was Mughlai Paratha).

French toast is a very popular breakfast in the Western world, but with globalization, French toast has become a part of our cuisine too, albeit with some variations. A little research on the web revealed some interesting facts about the dish.

The French toast made in Europe and America contains milk along with eggs as one of the main ingredients for soaking the bread slices. They even use cinnamon, granulated sugar as addendum, and have it with Maple or any other syrup. Here’s a googly – French toast isn’t necessarily of French origin. It finds its earliest mention in a 4th century Roman cookbook – Apicius. Frying the day old stale bread solved the problem for unappetizing crunchy bread. The book, apparently, is arranged in a manner similar to modern cookbooks.

French Toast

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Milk bread (Pauruti): 4-6 slices

Eggs (Dim): 3

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size, chopped into small pieces

Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 2, finely chopped

Sunflower oil (Sada tel) for frying

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Cut the bread slices diagonally and keep aside

Break the eggs into a wide, shallow plate along with chopped onion, chilies and salt, beat well with a fork

Place the bread slices , one at a time, letting the egg to soak in, turn the slices around to soak the other side also

Heat oil in a pan and fry the egg soaked slices till golden brown on both sides

Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney

Hot tip: To reduce the calorie intake, you can use brown bread instead of milk bread.